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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23636098">A Miraculous Selection</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snugglebuttkitten/pseuds/Snugglebuttkitten'>Snugglebuttkitten</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Most Beautiful Melody [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Selection AU</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:42:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,841</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23636098</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snugglebuttkitten/pseuds/Snugglebuttkitten</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Will post plot and finish tagging shortly, just wanna get this posted.</p><p>It's a Selection AU yoll, gonna be great!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Most Beautiful Melody [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/986736</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Miraculous Selection</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Are you nervous?”<br/>
    Princess Marinette Dupain-Cheng of the Illea Kingdom nearly jumped out of her skin at the question, spinning wide-eyed to face the grinning blonde who had just popped his head into her bedroom. Normally, the sight of the boy would make her smile giddily but today she just scowled and whipped one of her overstuffed pillows at his head in indignation. He ducked back out of the room, laughing as the pillow hit the doors and fell to the ground harmlessly before poking his head back in with a cheeky smile that only has her eyes narrowing further.<br/>
    “I’ll take that as a yes.” Pushing into the room, Adrien Agreste strolls over to the Queen sized Canopy bed and drops onto the edge, craning his neck to look at the girl who is currently trying to suffocate herself with a pillow. He reaches out, tugging lightly but she had a death grip on the fluffy confection and he gives up without much more of a fight. Instead he settles for patting her head in what he hopes is a comforting gesture, eyes shining with worry. “Come on, Mari, it isn’t that bad.”<br/>
    “Yes it is, Adrien,” she turned her head slightly, peeking up at him with one bluebell eye to say, lips turned down at the corners. “This whole process, this Selection, is archaic. It’s barbaric. They expect me to just pick some random guy out of a group and spend the rest of my life by his side. It is so unfair!”<br/>
    Adrien sighs and nods even though her face is once again buried in the pillow so he knows she can’t see him. She is right, after all. Marinette often is, though he won’t admit that to her lest she never let him live it down. This whole thing is incredibly archaic and old fashioned and unfair and while he adores Queen Sabine and King Tom, he is honestly a little perturbed that they weren’t taking their daughter’s feelings into account here. They had always seemed so considerate in the past, why was now any different? Sure, she was a Princess but didn’t she deserve to marry for love? Why must she be forced to go on dates with a bunch of random boys, narrowing them down until she found one she could tolerate living with, maybe even grow to like, but would probably never love wholeheartedly? She was the sweetest and most loving girl he knew and he hated that she was hurting right now.<br/>
    “Maybe it won’t be so bad, Mari. Maybe you’ll find someone you really, really like!” He suggested hopefully, reaching over to nudge her shoulder with one hand. She mumbled something he didn’t quite catch and he frowned and told her as much, finally prompting her to lift her head fully and give him a hard stare.<br/>
    “I said pack your bags, we’re eloping tonight,” she said and he had to laugh at that because she looked so cute and so serious. She glared at him, clearly put out by his laughter but he really couldn’t help it.<br/>
    “Come on, Mari, you can’t be serious. You love Illea, it’s your home, and you love you parents and your best friend and your cat,” he said as the red and black tortoiseshell hopped onto the bed and padded over to rub against her owner. “Besides, could you really imagine us getting married?”<br/>
    Marinette stared hard at him as he chuckled at the thought, willing the angry and hurt tears away as he laughed at the very idea. It wasn’t his fault he was dense as a brick wall when it came to her feelings and she knew he wasn’t laughing to be mean. He just genuinely didn’t love her that way. So really, she didn’t know why she was so distraught over the Selection. The only boy she loved, the only one she had any desire to actually marry, was never going to love her back and she really ought to accept that but it was hard. They had so much history together and she loved him so much that it physically hurt sometimes. It wasn’t fair that her best friend was so perfect and flawless with his perfectly coiffed blonde hair, his perfect cheekbones and those perfect, luminous green eyes of his. He was the definition of dreamy, it was no wonder he was a model for his father’s fashion brand. Too bad he had only ever seen her as a friend.<br/>
    Adrien looked back at her curiously at her lack of response but by that time she had schooled her features into one of cool indifference. Now was not the time to go confessing her undying love, not when all of her hopes and dreams for the future were about to come crashing down around her. It just… it wasn’t fair and not for the first time, Marinette wished she hadn’t been born a Princess, a One. If she had been born to a family in one of the lower Castes, a six or a five or even a four like her Best Friend, Alya, she would be free to pursue and marry whomever she pleased. Instead, she would be stuck in a loveless marriage while Adrien married the mystery girl he was always going on and on about, but of whom he refused to name. She felt she deserved to at least know the name of her rival in love but no. Adrien had to be a cheeky bastard about the whole thing.<br/>
    Sighing in frustration, she shifted into a sitting position and hugged a pillow to her chest, staring forlornly off into space. Perhaps the worst part of this whole thing is that she understood where her parents were coming from. She might not like it, but she was their daughter and she had been training to be a Queen since forever. She knew how Kings and Queens had to think, how they always had to put the best interests of the Kingdom before their own wants and needs. She understood that this was a tradition ingrained in the very lifeblood of their Kingdom and that they had always married future rulers to sons and daughters of their own Kingdom, while marrying younger siblings off to the Princes and Princesses of neighboring kingdoms. It was how things worked, how they had worked for generations and to change it now when the event had been so very anticipated could cause pandemonium. She was the only daughter of King Tom and Queen Sabine; the whole Kingdom had looked forward to her Selection since before she was born and now that she was eighteen and of age, there was no escaping it.<br/>
    “Hey,” Adrien was a lot more solemn this time when he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, perhaps finally sensing that this was a mood unlikely to be lifted anytime soon. “It’s time. Do you want to watch them announce the winners?”<br/>
    She didn’t, not really, but that didn’t stop her from giving a reluctant nod and it didn’t stop her from letting Adrien guide her from the bed and over to the little ‘living’ area she had set up with a couch, a few matching armchairs and her television. He got her settled at one end of the couch before digging around for the remote, releasing an ‘aha’ when he found it that had her lips twitching up ever so slightly. Adrien cued up the television to the right channel and then settled beside her, pulling the red, black and green quilt from the back of the couch that they had spent almost an entire year working on. Her Aunt Gina had taught them to sew and though it had been long and tedious, given their inexperience, their youth, and the complexity of the design, it had been well worth it in the end. Now, they traded the quilt back and forth every few weeks. It was technically Adrien’s turn to have the quilt but he had brought it over a few days ago, stating that he was more than willing to let her keep it for the duration of the Selection if it would make her feel better.<br/>
    “Ready?” He glanced down at her and she didn’t have to look up at him to know that there was concern reflected in his green eyes. Her sweet Prince, who would never truly be hers. It wasn’t fair and yet there was little she could do about it now. Scooching closer, she leaned into him and relished the way his arm automatically lifted to tuck her into his side. She would miss this, a lot. Adrien probably wouldn’t be permitted to visit often during the next six or so months as she worked through the thirty-five boys and the elimination process. And once she was married, she doubted her husband would be very happy with her openly cuddling with another guy. Even if that guy only thought of her as a friend.<br/>
    “Yeah, I’m ready,” she said, wincing as the lie fell effortlessly off her tongue. She didn’t look up to see whether Adrien believed her or not and he didn’t press her. Ready or not, there was no escaping her fate and the television was already flickering to life, showing an image of the live show currently being hosted by Alec Cataldi. The bald chocolate-skinned man appeared on stage with a wide smile that showed off his pearly whites as he greeted the camera and went through his usual introduction. He was a popular tv host, a self made Two who had worked hard to get where he was, and he was as sleazy as they came. But the public loved him and had been thrilled when they found out that he was this year's Selection Host.<br/>
    Mr. Cataldi began to explain how the Selection worked and how the process of choosing the thirty-five contenders worked. It was mostly a team of Advisors and her parents that went through all of the applicants and narrowed them down, and while no Caste was technically banned from the competition it was almost always Castes 2-4 that represented, with the occasional five and the rare six thrown in mostly to ensure the public thought the competition wasn’t rigged towards children of prestigious backgrounds. Marinette, unfortunately, had no say in who would compete for her hand. She didn’t even get to know who the contenders were until now, during the show, just like the rest of Illea. Mr. Cataldi finally finished his history lesson and her breath hitched nervously as he announced that he would now be naming the contenders, their caste, and a few things about them. This was it… the moment she was waiting for. These were the boys that she would have to meet, date, and choose to either eliminate or not over the course of the next half a year or more. It was with startling clarity that she realized something. She was so not ready for this.</p>
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